The first movie I saw at the 13th Week of Spanish Cinema in Warsaw was ‘Tres metros sobre el cielo’, a modern adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Well, not exactly, but it was pretty similar. A rich, obedient girl and a poor, rebellious guy. That is so typical. She doesn’t drink alcohol because her parents don’t let her, he drives a motorcycle at illegal night races. Is there any better idea for a love story in the world? I don’t think so.

Based on a novel by Federico Moccia, the movie is absolutely nothing you wouldn’t expect out of a dromance (let’s call a drama-romance mix like that, dromance; I like it). But what was rather startling, was the fact that although completely predictable, ‘Tres metros sobre el cielo’ was a totally enjoyable film. It makes the audience want to watch the sequel. And, as the leaflet says, it was an absolute success in Spain, probably because of the main actor is quite hot and the main actress is one of the biggest stars of the young generation.

The movie itself is rather hard to describe. There were plenty of scenes during which the whole audience laughed uncontrollably (literally, THE WHOLE), but there were also plenty of those tear jerking ones. Some scenes reminded me of Taylor Swift music videos, or even of ‘High School Musical’, if you know what I mean. Crowded party, she is dancing alone in the middle, he approaches her in less than thirty seconds elbowing his way through the mass, nobody hits him in return… I think you get the picture. And yes, then they kiss and then the whole situation repeats like four times during the whole movie. How cute. Also, during the most romantic of all those scenes (and as it was the last one, the audience nearly died laughing), in another part of the city a tragedy is about to happen, and all you can think of is ‘Who will die? Who will die?’. A cheap way to keep the viewers interested. I don’t know who is to be blamed for it – the author of the novel or the director, but I’d say both.

Everything in this movie was so typical and run-of-the-mill that I can’t figure out what made me like it. But I guess that’s the point. That’s the success of the director: he made another dromantic film and yet he managed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats till the very end. And yes, everything is painfully predictable, but I still want to see the sequel. Odd. I hardly ever watch such productions, not even speaking of liking them. But if I do, it’s usually because of the cinematography or music or acting or whatever else that could be amazing in a movie. Here the soundtrack was a bit pathetic (imagine songs in English for the background of a Spanish movie; unthinkable!), acting and shots unsurprisingly ordinary and I didn’t catch any hidden deep philosophy that could change my life.

It’s killing me, but to be honest, I have to admit – I actually enjoyed ‘Tres metros sobre el cielo’. I can only believe that sometimes everyone has a moment of weakness and watches such movies. Therefore I am not going to recommend / not recommend it. I don’t really have a valuable opinion on this film, so I will only say that if you like love stories, you should also like ‘Tres metros sobre el cielo’. However, I’m not sure of it, as I haven’t seen the sequel (‘Tengo ganas de tí’). I will probably state my opinion and recommendation more clearly when I watch it. And I certainly will, because come on, who wouldn’t like to know the ending of a love story like that? (Yeah, that is sarcasm. But seriously, I will see it.)